Pre-partition era Indian currency notes are up for auction at Noonans Mayfair auction house in London after they were found from the shipwreck of S S Shirala.

The ship was torpedoed in 1918 towards the end of the World War I by Germans.

“Entire blocks of these notes, along with various supplies from marmalade to ammunition, were being shipped to Bombay from London when the vessel was torpedoed by a German U-boat,” Worldwide Head of Numismatics at Noonans Thomasina Smith said.

According to Smith, notes drifted ashore including unsigned Rs5, Rs10 and signed Re1 denominations.

“Most were retrieved and subsequently destroyed by the authorities, with new ones printed to replace them. However, a few examples remain in private collections,” she said.

She emphasized the remarkable condition of the recovered currency notes.

“They must have been in the centre of a tightly bound bundle, preventing contact with seawater. It’s also notable that they have consecutive serial numbers,” she added.

These Indian notes are significant as it belongs to the British colonial era and can be sold off at between GBP 4,400 and 5,000.

The notes were signed and stamped in Calcutta, having in various Indian languages, such as Hindi and Bengali.

The ship, S S Shirala, sank as it was hit by German U-boat firing torpedos in 1918 that was carrying munitions, ivory, wine, marmalade, lorry parts, spares for model T cars, diamonds and sheets of paper from the Bank of England.

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